Murder, She Wrote: Season Four
Summary Jessica's trip to Paris, to view her friend's debut fashion line, is intterrupted when the business partner of her friend Eva Taylor is found murdered. Jessica is dragged further into the investigation when the evidence found by the French police indicates that Eva herself may be the murderer. Jessica's cousin makes another appearance when an old flame of hers, now the third Viscount Blackraven, dispatches his solicitor to request her presence at his country estate. The two are in the process of rekindling their relationship when the Viscount is murdered, and so Emma sets out to discover who killed him. Jessica finds herself forced to host a dinner party when some less than friendly relatives of Amos' come to town. But Jessica finds her attempt to broker peace less than successful when someone poisons her meal, leading to the death of Amos' brother in law, leaving his sister as the prime suspect! Jessica also finds herself called upon by an old friend who is running for the United States Senate. Jessica is more than happy to come onboard as the campaigns speech writer, however when the cnadidates campaign managers turns up dead it isn't Jessica's writing skills which are called upon. Jessica must endeavour to find the truth, as both her friends freedom and political career at stake. However things get even more complicated when the press reveal photographs which appear to show that the candidate and her campaign manager were having an affair. Not only was the candidates husband aware of these photos, but it was the opposition that leaked them to the press. Politics can be a deadly business! Trivia Juliet Prowse's last television acting performance. Six of the characters have names derived from jazz musicians or critics. Valerie and Kim Bechet are named after Sidney Bechet, the mixed-race Creole clarinetist and soprano saxophonist from New Orleans who first performed in Europe in 1919 and spent the 1950's, the last decade of his life, in the country he considered his ancestral homeland, France. Inspector Hugues Panassié is named after a French jazz critic who wrote a number of books about the music, including "The Real Jazz" (1942) and "Louis Armstrong" (in French in 1969 and his own English translation in 1971). Officer Luter is named after Claude Luter, French bandleader who used Bechet as a guest artist in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Eva Taylor is named after a 1920's jazz singer who was the wife of Clarence Williams, a Black bandleader and songwriter who used her on a lot of his records. And Lu Watters was the name of a (male) jazz trumpeter who founded a New Orleans-style revival band in San Francisco in 1940. Juliet Prowse(Valerie) and Angela Lansbury (Jessica) have both starred alongside Elvis Presley, Juliet Prowse in G.I. Blues (1960) playing cabaret singer/dancer Lili and Angela Lansbury in Blue Hawaii (1961) as the mother of Chadwick (Elvis Presley) Goofs In scenes that take place in unmistakably Parisian exterior locations, Angela Lansbury is doubled by a different actress of similar height and weight who wears the same outfits, but whose hair is slightly darker and is cut shorter in the back. In most scenes, the actress is seen only from the rear at a distance with cars positioned in front of her, and when she arrives at the Jules Verne Restaurant, her face is obscured by another character's hat as she turns to face the camera; under normal circumstances, these would be unusual ways to block scenes that feature the star of a show. Starring Regular Cast *Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher *Tom Bosley as Sheriff Amos Tupper *William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt Recurring Cast *Michael Horton as Grady Fletcher *Debbie Zipp as Donna Mayberry *Julie Adams as Eve Simpson *Angela Lansbury as Emma MacGill *Richard Paul as Mayor Sam Booth Episodes Background Information *This season features the first appearance of Eve Simpson, whom would go on to become a recurring character. *This season is the last to feature main cast member Tom Bosley, who played Sheriff Amos Tupper. Bosley would leave the show for his own, The Father Dowling Mysteries. Category:Murder, She Wrote Seasons